Decline In Hunter Numbers Traced To Baby Boomers
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service studies show that nationwide, participation in hunting has dropped from 14 million hunters several years ago to 11.5 million today. In 2019, only 5% of Americans hunt, about half as many as 50 years ago. My home state of Virginia, for example, has lost one-third of its deer hunters in the last 25 years, from 300,000 in the 1990s down to 200,000 today. Experts with the Virginia Dept. Of Game and Inland Fisheries say the decline in licensed hunters is the #1 deer management issue in the Commonwealth. There are myriad reasons for the decline--family/work obligations; more people living in urban areas; lack of access to hunting land; too many people glued to iPhones, Netflix, [...]